Recent researchers have focused on scavenging energy from ambient vibrations or movements by using piezoelectricenergy harvesters. Rotary movements are regarded as potential energy resources as they can be utilized in windmills orturnstile gates in stations. This study aims to study the vibrational interference that could occur in the typical rotationalplucking energy harvester with circularly distributed plectra on the outer ring plucking on the circular array of multiplepiezoelectric cantilevers on the inner hub. In this structure, the plucking frequency will be increased to times of the inputrotational frequency since multiple plectra will participate in the deflection of each piezoelectric cantilever for onerotational cycle. A model is established based on the Hamilton’s principle for the basic electromechanical part and theHertzian contact theory for the solution of plucking force. Based on the developed model, the simulation results of thesystem responses of the rotational plucking energy harvester (RPEH) in a wide rotational frequency range reveal that thesystem may be suppressed by the vibrational interference such that the energy output is restricted as the rotationalfrequency is increased. The induced plucking force has also been plotted to reproduce the dynamic contact process andinvestigate the variation of the force amplitude with rotational frequency. An overall investigation of the energy harvestingperformance also indicates the influence of the vibrational interference on the RPEH structure.
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